Aussie 7-Eleven Stores Kick Off A ‘Recycling Revolution’

All starts with a coffee cup

7-Eleven has announced a “recycling revolution” aiming to save 70 million takeaway cups from ending up in landfill.

“As the programme scales up, 7-Eleven is committing to recycling 70 million cups a year, equivalent to the number we sell in-store,” said 7-Eleven Chief Executive Officer, Angus McKay.

“It doesn’t matter where you purchase your drink, we want consumers to dispose of their cups in the 7-Eleven Simply Cups bin and be part of the cup recycling revolution.”

Currently, more than one billion takeaway cups end up in landfill each year in Australia because there is no effective way for cups to be recycled.

This is thanks to polyethylene or liquid paperboard lining being a contaminant for regular paper recycling facilities.

However that’s set to change, with Closed Loop’s Simply Cups Rob Pascoe explaining special home-grown technology will now see the ability for materials to be processed in regular paper and plastic recycling facilities.

“By collecting takeaway cups via a separate waste stream, Simply Cups can guarantee that cups collected through the dedicated 7-Eleven bins will be recycled,” he said

The 7-Eleven Simply Cups collection bins will be rolled out in March 2018 and will take any brand of coffee, Slurpee or similar paper-based cup in over 200 nationally alongside 50 other large-scale locations such as universities or construction sites.